Disney's Epcot Flower & Garden fest to bloom for 20th year

Character topiaries and Flower Power concerts will soon return to Walt Disney World.

The 20th annual Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival will come alive on March 6.

The festival will feature all of the fan favorites -- including Flower Power concerts, HGTV expert seminars and the famous Disney topiaries. Landscape artists are already hard at work turning live plants into the living statues of iconic Disney characters.

Last year, WESH spoke with festival planner Renee Worrell about the topiary-making process.

Each design takes weeks to plan -- from the sketches to deciding which plant material to use. Welding comes next on the topiary's frame. Workers also create tech-friendly internal irrigation systems so that each character topiary is perfectly watered. Then, the planting begins.

The show changes each year, with different character topiaries, various arrangements in Epcot's gardens and on its floating flower beds and flower towers.

"I think the thing that shocks people when they first come to the festival, and the thing people that come back love, is the color," Disney horticulture manager Eric Darden said. "You're not going to be able to look anywhere without seeing color."

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